The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-22
FRANK FRAYNE AND HIS BEASTS,
The Actor Tells of Els Experience
With bob Ingerson," the Lion.

II.
From. the Philadelphia Ne,cs.
Frank I. Frayne tells good story about
his Jersey farm and his ferocious lion.
81 keep my lion and hyenas on the farm
and it's very funny" he said while they
are there the other farmers keep their doors
and windows locked, and never go out un-
less armed with a shotgun
MY lion is very ferocious and reouires
great care. call him Col. Ingersoll,' be-
cause the Colonel once told me that | was
committing sin against nature in keeping
that beautiful animal Gagged I'D when he
ought to be i'll jungle.
"By the way, that lion has history. He
has killed two men and he carried a bullet
in his nose beneath his right eve, which he
received in Cuba. He belonged to Orrin
Bros circus and they were showing in Cuba.
A Cuban who was attending him tied the
lion up TO the grating and went inside the
cage. The powerful animal broke loose and
sprang on the man and killed him. They
he'd dreadful time to get the body out of
the cage.
''They put hump on the animals back
pounding him with iron bars, but it had no
effect, aud finally q relative of the dead man
shot the hon in the nose with ball from a
As calibre revolver That stunned him. and
lion caused the death of his second victim in
Mexico. The animal was with Sells Bros
circus. A man got too near the cage and the
lion seized his arm and actually pulled it out
of the shoulder socket. The victim died in
few minutes.
"The most thrilling experience that had
with him was at the beginning of this sea-
son. We were billed to play In Cumberland,
Nd. The theatre was in the second story
NJ of 20
cage upstairs and put it on the stage. They
did so, and then nearly every negro in the
town came in to see the lion The cage was
out of repair, and had a blacksmith fixing
it. He took off a lot of the outside bars and
took them to his shop, when Frank one of
my young men, went to let the lion into the
outside cage for water not knowing that
some of the bars were off. The consequence
was that the lion walked out onto the stage
and started down towards the negroes. There
was never hall cleared as quickly as that
one was In an instant not a negro was
seen. Frank mounted to the top of the
cage, and from there he climbed up into the
flies. Then the lion had full possession of the
theatre, and was trotting around among the
seats.
II ran up TO the hall and called for a lot of
negroes in the street to come and help me
cage the beast, but it was no go. A cart
went into the hall and mounted the stage
Frank was still up in the flies and when
told him to come down and get me the lions
meat he said he preferred to stay where he
was. got the meat myself and the lion
watched every movement made. Iopened
the cage door and then stood outside and
waved the meat. In moment the beast
came for me with roar. 1t was life or
death, but had to take the chances. AS he
bounded on the stage l rushed in the cage
He was right at my heels and as threw the
meat into one corner Of the cage, it diverted
his attention and he bounded on it. Before
he could turn on me | slipped out and shut
the door and had him safely Gagged. Then
Frank came down from the flies and in less
than five minutes the hall was again filed
with anxious negroes.
DO my, hyenas ever fight? Well, they
would, and savagely, too, if they got to-
gether, because they are very jealous of each
other, but we take care to keep them apart
Once they got into the same cage and began
deadly combat, but ended the fight by
turning hose on them. One Of them is
striped and the othet is spotted, and you
know they are born enemies. The spotted
one is tame and is of the species known as
the laughing hyena. The striped hyena is
untamable and is very ferocious My two
bears are simply pets, and wouldn't hurt
anything. My three dogs are very jealous,
as much so as opera singers and Italian
dancers They are continually trying to
Guido one another | am fond of animals
and have great collection of them on my
farm -